Spezza turns 31 Friday and he will eventually get his wish, traded away to a franchise which is likely much closer to winning the Stanley Cup than the Ottawa Senators are. For a player who has never been on a championship team, getting his name on the Cup is something he is said to want very badly.

If you’re handicapping the Spezza horse race, the St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks are now the clear favourites. There’s a secondary group, believed to include the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars, which can be considered dark horses.

While it might be tough for some fans to digest the pending loss of yet another captain, an 11-year veteran star who at one time might have appeared to be a Senators lifer, it was inevitable.